Locomotive terminal hot water supply



May 30, 1933. B. E. FERRELL LOCOMOTIVE TERMINAL HOT WATER SUPPLY Filed Jan. 29, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet l 6: fflUZ ZiO)? W %%%44 ft oraeys. I

y 3 1933- B. E. FERRELL 1,911.754

LOCOMOTIVE TERMINAL HOT WATER SUPPLY Filed Jan. 29, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 39, 1933 UNITED STATES BLANCHARD n. FERRELL, or CHICAGO, InLnvoIs LOCOMOTIVE TERMINAL HQT WATER SUPPLY .Application filed January 29, 1932. Serial No. 5s9-,5s4.

This invention relates to apparatus for antomatically and economically maintaining, in such places as railway terminals, a supply of water of a purity and at a temperature 5 required for certain routine-purposes, such, for instance, as refilling locomotive boilers and thewashing the exteriors of locomotives.

While it has long been the practice in locomotive terminals to salvage the heat 0 units from the volatiles blown off from locomotives, in maintaining a supply of boiler filling water, and at the same time to separately accumulate the hot water of the blown ofi products for use in washing out boilers, apparatus designed for this purpose has generally had in View themaintaining of a fresh water supply merely suflicient for refilling boilers after the process of washing out, so that there was no hot fresh water for 9 use for other routine purposes at the terminal, and large volumes of heat units were wasted in storing blown off'wate'r, for washout purposes, at temperatures which were too 1 hot and which required tempering by the expenditure of fresh cold water in order to render it suitable for use in the connections manipulated in directing it against the boiler surfaces that have tobe cleaned.

The present invention aims to largely re- 30 duce the waste of this form of practice and at the same time enlarge the service of the hot fresh water supply at the terminal, and to do so under conditions which render the accumulation of the latter automatic according to demand for not only the refilling of boilers but for other routine operations in which hot water may be used to advantage.

Accordingly, the present invention proceeds-upon the principle of causing the tank which stores the hot fresh water, to receive its supply wholly or in part by transfer from a fresh water heating tank that is in heat absorbing relation to the body of discarded water which isbeing stored for washout purposes; causing this transfer of hot water to be automatically controlled to maintain a desired water level in the fresh hot water tank; and automatically replacing in said heating tank, from a fresh water source, water sufficient to keep the volume up to an eflicient heat-absorbing level therein. Ordinarily, thehot fresh water tank will re ceive a certain proportion of its hot water supply from the condenser to which the volatiles'of the blown off products are delivered so that the supply of water heated by heat absorbed. from the stored washout water, will merely make up the deficiency in meeting the demand on the hot water tank. 'But the automatic character of the controls from the fresh water supply'to the heating tank, and from the heating tank to the hot water dispensing tank,.make the system sufficiently elastic to maintain a desired level of hot water in the dispensing tank, notwithstanding the material variation in thevolume of hot water flowing fromthe condenser, and particularly the seasonal variation experienced in plants where the exhaust from heating and other steam-consuming units around the plant also passes to the condenser.

Among the featuresof 'the'preferred embodiment ofv the invention is the location of the washout water dispensing pipeat a low point in the blowoif water storage container and the hot water transferpipe in the upper portion of the heating tank, so as to further the aim of the invention in transferring as little heat as practicable to the washout line and as much heat as practicable to the hot water dispensing tank.

In theaccompanying drawings, inwhich the preferred embodiment of the invention is shown by way of illustration,--

Figure 1 is a plan viewv of essential portions of the receiving, separating, storing and delivering elements of a boiler washing plant in which the present invention is embodied; and V i Figure 2 is an ,elevational view of the separating and storing elements shown in Figure 1. 1

1 represents a pipethrough which hot water, deliveredto a separator 2 through a blowoif pipe 3, mayfiow into a washout storage tank 4, and from which tank said water may pass as needed through a pipe 5 to a pump 6 whichforces it through pipe 7 to a place of consumption. As pipe 7 sup,- plies facilities for washing out a locomotive boiler, it is customary to have a fresh water supply pipe 8 from which may be delivered, in thermostatically or otherwise controlled proportion, cold water for reducing the temperature of the washout water to a degree that renders it safe for handling through the washing hose or other connections.

As tempering increment comingthrough pipe 8 is usually from a sourceyof fresh water, any use that can be made of the excessive heat units int-he washout water'before it leaves tank 4 works a desirable economy in the operation of the plant; Accordingly, the tank 9, used for accumulating and dispensing hot fresh water, for instance, through pipe 5a, pump 6a and pipe 7a, for the purpose of refilling washed locomotive boilers, is caused to receivev hot .water through a novel combination of instrumentalities involving transfer of heatfrom the stored body of excessively hot washout water and in volume automatically controlled according to demand upon the said tank 9 which serves as a dispensing source. This provides for tank9 a hot water supply of elastic volume, automatically kept commensurate with the variable aggregate demands of the boiler filling station, the colloidal oil and water washing apparatus, and any other hot water'consuming routine functions of the locomotive terminal. This auto-matically regulated hot water supplywill preferably, but not necessarily be auxiliary to the conventional supply coming in through the condensate pipe 10 leading from the condenser 11 into which steam or vapor flows through pipe 12 from sources such as blowoff separator 2, stationary engine exhausts, and the like, for condensation by water from pipe such as 13. I

In the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, tank 9 is caused to receive its automatically varied supply of hot water through a transfer pipe 14, leading from the upper portion of a heating tank 15 that stands in heat-absorbing relation to the blown off water storing tank 4. An outside float actuated valve 16 in pipe 14, answering to a predetermined level, such as X, in the tank 9, keeps tank 9 replenished by hot water from tank 15. An outside float actuated valve 17 causes fresh water to be released from supply pipe 18'into heating tank 15 whenever the volume of water in the latter is reduced, by transfer to tank 9, below a predetermined level, such as Y. Level Y is maintained sufficiently near the top of tank 15 to insure fullest efficiency in heat absorption from the contents of tank 4. Obviously, the levels X and Y will depend upon the location of float 16a that controls the valve 16, and float 17 a controlling valve 17. Delivery fromfresh water sup ply 18 to heating tank 15 is preferably through a pipe 19 that reaches to a relatively said tank 4 if the water level therein should fall materially below said float 20a.

Tanks 4 and 9 may be provided with the usual overflow pipes 22 and 23, respectively, which, however, by way of enhancing the aim of the present invention, will communicate with said tanks through drop pipes 22a and'23a terminating near the bottoms of the respective tanks, so that in the event of an overflow the cooler portion of the water will be wasted. Tank 15, if filled to excess, will overflow into washout tank 4, where surplus water .will be disposed of as just described.

With anautomatically controlled hot fresh water supply as herein described, the dispensing tank 9 will maintain a sufficient volume of hot water to respond to a demand materially greater than that required for refilling locomotives and enable performance ofvarious routine functions involving the use of. hot water, in addition to filling locomotives.

What is claimed is:

1. -A boiler washing system comprising a blow-off water tank having connections through which it receives hot water blown off from a locomotive, a heating tank sur rounding said blow-off water tank, in'heat absorbing relation thereto, means for supplying fresh water to said surrounding tank, a storage tank and means for transferring water from the surrounding tank to the storage tank.

2. A hot water supply as described in claim 1, in which the transfer means is provided with a valve, and means for automatically opening said valve, responsive to a. desired water level in the storage tank.

, 3. A hot water supply as described in claim 1, in which the transfer means is provided with a valve and means for automatically opening said valve, responsive to a desired water level in the storage tank; and the fresh water supply means for the heating tank, includes a valve having means for automatically opening it, responsive to a desired level in said heating tank.

4. In a boiler washing plant, a separator adapted to receive products blown off from a boiler, a washout water storage tank receiving water from said separator, awhot fresh water dispensing tank receiving water of condensation from said separator, a fresh water heating tank surrounding and in heat absorbing relation to the washout water storage tank, a transfer passage leading from said heating tank to said dispensing tank, and means for supplying fresh water to said heating tank.

5. A boiler washing plant as described in claim 4 in which the transfer passage from the heating tank to the dispensing tank is provided with an automatic control responsive to a desired level in the dispensing tank, and the fresh water supply is provided with an automatic control responsive to a desired water level in the heating tank.

6. A hot fresh water supply as described in claim 1, in which the heating tank is adapted to overflow into the blow0fi' tank,

and said blow-ofi water tank has an overflow communicating therewith at a relatively low level therein.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, this 27th day of January, 1932.

BLANCHARD E. FERRELL. 

